How To Get More Followers on Instagram

One of the most common questions we have been asked over the last few months is “how do I get more followers on Instagram?”.

It can be frustrating seeing some accounts with hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers while you struggle to reach a few hundred.

Today that changes. Today you will get some truly actionable takeaways to start growing your Instagram followers instantly.

Let’s get to work…

1. Consistency, Quality & Volume

If someone lands on your Instagram profile, what do they see? Is it a mess of seemingly disconnected images clearly published without a plan? If that is what you see, would you be more or less inclined to follow them?

Consistency is key, when someone lands on your profile then they should understand what you are all about. Your style you resonate from your imagery – if you’ve got them this far this should be enough to convince them to follow you.

Naturally, the quality of your images need to be of the highest order. High resolution crisp images can add an extra kick needed to convert people from visiting your profile to pressing that elusive ‘follow’ button.

Particularly since the most recent algorithm update from Instagram (that annoying one that means your feed is all out of sync) volume matters! To drive some serious follower numbers you should be aiming to post 2-8 times per day. This is not always easy with everything else that is needed to run a blog, but using tools such as Schedugram or Later to schedule your posts in advance.

2. Loop Giveaways

Want to drive some serious follower growth then Viral Loop Giveaways are your best friend in 2018!

The power of loop giveaways are undeniable. Some have increased their following by over 5000 from just one giveaway with the right partners and prize.

A loop giveaway is a type of Instagram content that usually include between five and 20 (or more) accounts that come together to jointly host a contest.

This type of contest helps increase visitors to your profile and somewhat allows to bypass the Instagram algorithm. They are extremely useful for both emerging bloggers as well as established bloggers as your account is effectively shared with multiple new audiences that might not have found your account already.

The giveaway organiser will put together a graphic for the participating accounts, and they will all publish a post at the same time. Each account will tag another so that the user can work their way through the loop one at a time and follow each. Often the images are the same or very similar and only the captions are different to continue the loop.

3. Share for Share (S4S)

The power of a shoutout or a mention from another account can do wonders for your following. If you have some blogger friends from meetups or elsewhere, if you band together and give each other a shoutout once a month for a while then you will drive followers from sharing audiences.

There are other ways to secure these shoutouts with other accounts you perhaps don’t know as well. The basics of S4S are quite simple. You ask another blogger in your niche if they would like to share your content and mention you, and in return you will share theirs.

This way you’ll be able to expose each other’s accounts to each other’s audiences, some of whom likely have never even heard of you before. The best part is that if you choose who you do S4S with carefully, you’ll probably find someone with an audience who you know will like your content too.

You’ll quickly discover that one of the greatest things about Instagram is that it allows you to tap directly into a niche with distinct likes, interests, hobbies, and needs.

We advise you don’t abuse this tactic as your account can become less authentic for your audience, ensuring you only do it a maximum of 2-3 times per week (if you are posting multiple times per day) you will see significant increases in your follower numbers.

4. Review What Works to Get Know Your Audience

Now you are posting regularly, getting more followers, sharing a mix of content both your own and others for shoutouts. You should be able to analyse what types of content and style of images (or videos) work best for your audience.

Whether they love a flatlay, are infatuated by colour or engaged in your videos. Knowing what resonates most with your audience will help you focus on giving them more of what they like the most.

You can use some free analytics tools such as Social Bakers to highlight your best performing posts.

Once you know what they like the most, you can gear more posts towards that. As a result you will drive more likes, comments and video views which will increase your chances of showing up in other people’s feeds, the explore feeds, and on searches for hashtags.

5. “Tag A Friend” or “Double Tap”

A simple little trick to drive both additional engagement on your posts in for the form of comments or likes.

Adding a call to action request in the description of your posts can give a psychological nudge to your user to actually perform that action (much more likely than if you don’t ask).

Asking your followers to ‘Tag a friend’ will drive your followers to tag people they think might also be interested in your content which can be very useful for driving more followers.

A double tap (unknowingly to some) results in the user liking your photo, this can drive up to 50% more like on your posts compared to not adding to your description. Give it a try and see if it resonates with your audience.

6. Follow & Comment

A hugely underused tactic is to actually use social media to be social. To engage with other people in the interior design industry, from other bloggers, designers or brands.

Firstly, make sure you are following the sort of people you want to be following you and people you think will have an audience that will resonate with your content.

Now allocate some time during the day (can be as little as just 10 minutes) and spend that time going through your feed and actively engage with these accounts. Like their posts at a minimum, but comments will drive more followers both from those accounts you comment on as well as their followers who see your comment and find their way to your account.

Another tip is to try and follow people in the industry that you meet in person, at events, awards, etc as soon after meeting them as possible. You will be front of mind and there is a much higher chance of them following you back as a result.

7. Partner With Brands

Some bloggers and brands see ‘working together’ as brand pays blogger, bloggers does whatever paid for, everybody is happy.

However, the best results for both brands and bloggers are when they truly work together and engage with each other on their sites, blogs, social accounts, etc.

The relationship will become stronger, the activity will feel more authentic, and ultimately be better for both the blogger in terms of payment, their audience and driving more followers and the brand will likely get much better return on their investment.

Look for specific activity you can do with brands (maybe slightly cheaper than you might normally) that will really drive your own awareness. For example, if you are going to an industry event, a trade show, or similar then maybe reach out to some brands and offer to cover it for them on their accounts as a ‘guest grammer’.

The brands will love getting the content from you, will likely be happy to pay you for themselves getting exposure from your accounts and blog and results in great results for all.

Well there you have it, seven tips you can go away and start actioning today. Your followers won’t grow without a real effort from you, so get to work and let us know how it goes.

We value your privacy

This site uses cookies to provide you with the best experience. By clicking "I accept", you accept our use of cookies. There are various ways in which we will process your data, including personalised ads and content, which will be shared with some of our partners.

On this page you can set your preferences with regards to how we will process your data and share it with other organisations.